The Buddy Preserve--Readington Township grandmother hopes her invention will save some childhood aggravation
Posted: 11/11/2007
Mon and Dad are having a meltdown because their precious little princess is in the midst of a decibel-shattering, skin-crawling world-class Jekyll and Hude melt-down of her own-right in the middle of the shopping mall food court.
The ear-piercing performance kicked in when the three-year-old realized her favorite stuffed toy - a cuddly sheep dog with matted fur and one eye missing that goes everywhere she does- was no longer alongside her in the carriage.
Maybe it was left in the car or maybe it was run over in the parking lot, or it’s underfoot n the mall concourse; maybe some other kid found it and claimed “finder’s keepers.’
It really doesn’t matter: The furry creature is nowhere to be found, and oh how mom and dad wish they could quiet their distraught little girl whose pathetic cries have drawn the ire of the early afternoon burrito and sushi crowd.
Frantic, the parents tear through the diaper bag looking for a pacifier to stuff in their mouth, but it too has gone missing.
that was almost as bad as junior’s tantrum Saturday morning when a quick spin through the supermarket aisles hit more than a few bumps. Junior was compelled for some reason to toss his sippy cup filled with orange juice into the bin of bundled rutabaga in the produce aisle while mom was busy peeling back the corn to make sure the kernels were in straight lines.
It got ugly when junior realized there was no sippy cup backup.
High up on the check list of must haves at home or away are toys, bottles, sippy cups, pacifiers and to her assorted items, absolute essentials for a happy, contented baby and recommended for parents who want to maintain control or at least, some semblance of order.
But, more often than not, they’re forgotten, misplaced, or lost forever, never handy when they’re most needed.
An enterprising grandma from Whitehouse thinks she has the solution.
Bernice Hoffman call it the Buddy Preserver, a practical, handy device she says will help children and parents keep track of those items that are always getting lost.
The idea came to her in January while vacationing with her daughter’s family at Disney World in Florida.
Her daughter and son-in-law were competing in a marathon on day and she was babysitting her granddaughter.
“There was a situation that kept coming up over and over again and i thought to myself ‘there has to be a way to stop it from continuing, that’s how I came up with the idea of the Buddy Preserver,” she said.
She went on the Internet to look for help and to find out how she could patent her invention.
Now, Hoffman weighs her words carefully when asked to describe her invention, how it works, why it’s practical and will offer few details, She’s paying a Florida company to help her market her products to secure a manufacturing deal and Invent-Tech doesn’t want to reveal anything specific about the product, other than a carefully-worded press release:
“This product integrated with existing child care equipment to be effortless in performing this important function. If comes in various sizes to accommodate different types of objects and can be transferred between equipment. With its flexibility and versatility, the Buddy Preserver offers a valuable product to the vast market of parents and child caregivers.”
Hoffman has created a prototype of the Buddy Preserver, which is available for review under what Invent-Tech insists be “the appropriate terms and conditions of confidentiality.”
Hoffman will say her Invention is “smaller than a bread box,” and she did say that she went out shopping to buy the materials needed to make the prototype and has done her own field testing to make sure it works.
She also checked with family and friends to see whether any of them had seen or used anything like the Buddy Preserver.
“They all thought it was a great idea,” she said.
The Buddy Preserver is now available for licensing to manufacturers interested in new product development, especially in the baby products industry, according to an Invent-Tech spokesman.
“One Company has requested information on it; I’ve been sending out press releases and fliers to different manufacturers and hope to start hearing from them,” Hoffman said.
Since conceiving and creating the Buddy Preserver prototype, Hoffman says other ideas have been popping into her head and wouldn’t mind trying to market them as well.
“If this becomes a reality, being an inventor could become my new occupation,” she said.